RIM Launches BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10

Research In Motion Ltd. is launching Wednesday an updated version of its business-software service, its latest effort to hold onto its core business customers ahead of next week’s roll-out of a new operating system.

The product, called BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, allows companies to securely manage employees’ smartphones and tablets, whether they use BlackBerrys or devices from competing smartphone makers like Apple Inc. or Samsung Electronics Co.

RIM is launching its new, long-delayed operating system, called BlackBerry 10, next week, along with two new BlackBerry smartphones. The Waterloo, Ontario, company has seen its U.S. smartphone market share dwindle over the past four years as shoppers flocked to Apple’s iPhone and devices running on Google Inc.’s Android operating system.

But RIM still has a good chunk of the market in highly regulated industries like government, the financial sector and the legal sector. With its new service, RIM is hoping to maintain that position and grab a slice of the so-called Bring Your Own Device trend, in which companies allow their employees to bring any kind of smartphone to work.

RIM is essentially offering companies a smartphone and tablet management system that would incorporate any type of smartphone. The system would help companies control things like security settings for phones that employees use, whether they are BlackBerrys or not.

RIM is also launching an application storefront specifically aimed at businesses, called BlackBerry World for Work.

“We continue to be the leading smartphone in enterprises, yet we recognize it is a heterogeneous world,” said Peter Devenyi, RIM’s Senior Vice President for Enterprise Software. “That’s why it’s so critical for BES 10 to support not only BlackBerry devices but other devices.”

RIM says 1,600 companies in North America have signed up for a training program for the service, and that 130 corporate customers have been testing an early version of the service, which will cost a one-time fee of $99 per user. RIM is also offering two incentives for its business-focused service.

Existing customers can upgrade to the new service for free, and a company’s IT staffer will get a free BlackBerry 10 device if the company signs up.

Related: RIM Launches New BlackBerry Enterprise System

Correction & Amplification: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the name of Samsung Electronics Co.